


Reverie

by shadygrifter (restlessdreamer)



Category: Star Wars - All Media Types, Star Wars: Rebels
Genre: F/M, In which Kanan and Hera are happily married and survived the war, Made up Rylothi terms of endearment, Senatorial AU, Spoilers for "Jedi Night" and "Dume"
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-02-20
Updated: 2018-02-20
Packaged: 2019-03-21 14:58:58
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 658
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13743381
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/restlessdreamer/pseuds/shadygrifter
Summary: Sometimes, the worst nightmares that we have are memories of the moments where everything was taken away.Sometimes, a new dawn is all that's needed to drive the darkness away.





	Reverie

**Author's Note:**

> This is a quick fix-it fic from @urdnot on Tumblr and I's "Senatorial AU" in which, after the defeat of the Empire at the Battle of Jakku, Hera is appointed Senator of Lothal and has to forge alliances with her once arch-enemy and newly appointed Senator of the Unknown Regions, Thrawn. 
> 
> Lots of political drama, conspiracy theories, and needlessly shippy fluff because we're going to take a hammer and fix the canon.

The roar of the explosion fills the air around them, the heat of the flames licking up the side of the fuel pod enough to make her skin flush hot. She sees him- sees him just as she had seen him when they first met, when he held the falling structure of the imploding _Forager_ over her head with nothing but his outstretched hand- and her heart stops in her chest.

His name is on her lips, a scream, a plead- don’t do this to her, love. Don’t leave her to fight this war alone- and he pushes her back. Pushes her into Ezra’s arms, onto the transport. And for a moment, she sees him, not as he is but as he was. Caleb Dume. Eyes focused on her and her alone as he pushes the transport out of the blast zone.

  
Fire. Smoke. Tears stinging at her eyes as she reaches helplessly in the space, as if she could pull him from the flames with nothing but will alone.

  
And then nothing.

  
Gone, in an instant.

  
The long flight back to base camp had been a blur of sobbing, of clutching her kalikori to her chest. Of burying her face into Ezra’s shoulder.

  
Kneeling before the wall, fashioning a bead to remember Kanan by. She had blamed herself for his death. If only she had listened, if only she had stopped. If only she had refused to go to war, as Kanan had reminded her for so many years.  
She buries her face in her arms and sobs for everything that she has lost.

 

She’s still crying when she wakes.

 

The windows to her apartment on Chandrila are open, the mild summer wind stirring the trees that line the senatorial square. Nightbirds sing, insects buzz, and beside her she can feel the soft rise and fall of her husband’s chest, can feel his warmth pressed against her side. Her heart is still aching as she closes her eyes tightly, pressing their foreheads together as she grips to the cool metal of his right arm, running fingertips over where the prosthetic becomes scar tissue, burns from the blast that had never fully recovered.

  
“Kanan.” She whispers in the dark. “ _Uchalo_.”. Beloved. Bonded. A word that doesn’t quite have a direct translation. But it comes across her lips with her lekku crossing over- once, then twice, a gesture of love.

  
“Mm… Five more minutes.” He mumbles, pushing slightly against her so their noses are pressed close, so she could practically kiss him as she curls around him.

  
“Kanan.” She whispers again, and slowly, his blind eyes open as he feels the moisture of tears on her cheeks. Slowly, a metal thumb comes up to brush them away.

  
“I’m here.” He whispers to her in the dark, and she can’t help the soft sob that breaks through her chest as she pushes her face into his shoulder. Her hands dig into his back, and she keeps him there. Close enough that their hearts can beat against each other.  
“I’m not going anywhere.” He whispers, soothing his hand down her lekku, trying to calm her.  
“I’ve got you.”

  
“I-I love you.” Her shoulders are shaking, and he tries to make her smile with a soft chuckle.

  
“That’s not something to be crying over.”

  
“Don’t you ever. Ever die on me again.”

  
He’s quiet for a long moment, closing his eyes so she can feel his eyelashes against her skin. Pressing a soft kiss to her forehead as best he can.  
“I’m not going anywhere, Hera. Not for a long, long time.”

  
It’s dawn before she can sleep again, before she’s shaken off the memory of Lothal long enough to find peace again. And there, in her husband’s arms, feeling the rise and fall of his breath against her breast and his heart beating in time, does she find her peace.

  
He isn’t going anywhere.

  
Not for a long time to come.


End file.
